Overcoming the running slump
It happens to all of us. That time in life where running (or any kind of training) feels “blah” or it feels like you can’t come up with enough motivation and your discipline just seems to disappear into thin air. There’s many factors that could lead to this training slump. Maybe it’s winter, your goals are non-existent or less exciting, life stress, or you’re simply not enjoying running right now.
Personally, I have been in a major training slump. After I finished my race in September, I entered the biggest slump I have ever experienced in training. My slump-inducing factors included exhaustion from training for and running a very long race, life stress, a new job with a new work schedule, and a 6-year-old dog who decided to get separation anxiety. This list could keep going on and on.
Things like tracking your training, finding a goal that excites you, taking more rest days, trying something new, and buying a cool running outfit are all spectacular ways to try to get that excitement of training back. However, you just need a big ol’ break. This is exactly what I did.
My training regimen went from running/lifting/hiking 6 days a week while training for a 65 mile race to running once a week if I was lucky. The mind and body really benefited from this rest. My body was exhausted due to the past training and my new ski patrol job, and my mind was exhausted due to the same things and normal life stress. Eventually the rest had done me some good and I was slowly starting to get an itch to start training. Unfortunately, I still wasn’t really itching to run. This is when I thought about the ideas of trying something new, a new exciting goal, and maintaining a couple extra rest days.
What is something new I could try? A triathlon maybe. This had been on my list for a long time. Signing up for a sprint triathlon would give me a new, exciting goal to look forward to and give me a chance to try something totally new: swimming. All the while, I can maintain my main love of running as well. So, this is exactly what I did. I signed up for the St. George Sprint Triathlon. I won’t lie and say the training spark was back immediately and that the training was perfect. That would be far from the truth. Most weeks, I swam twice a week (the initial goal was three times), ran once a week, and biked once a week. Again, not my ideal training plan. Either way, I showed up on race day with the training I had completed in my back pocket. No expectations besides the hope it would be fun and enjoyable. Luckily, that’s exactly what it was! I had a blast trying something new and completing the goal I had set out to. So much so, that I feel like I may have the itch to start going bigger again. I am not going to get ahead of myself. Maybe, just maybe, if you mix up a concoction of taking a break and finding something that excites you, you may be on your way to exiting the training slump.
Remember: it’s a personal journey and what worked for me, may not work for you, but something will. Just keep swimming.
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